torstai 15. toukokuuta 2008

Day 4 - May 15th: Hark! a Hearth calleth!

Back so soon? Good thing, because we've got another post up and ready for you.

Again we will start with trench T108 at KKN. More quartz flakes were found as well as decaying ceramics but the real excitement of the day was finding that the enriched soil makes a very distinguishable hearth pattern in the west end of the trench. Pretty cool. This is supported by the finding of a small piece of bone within the hearth structure; burnt bone is well preserved in this soil and, depending on its species, could support the home-hearth theory. If this site follows the coastal residence pattern as seen in previous years this bone is most likely a seal bone, as seal was one of the primary resources in the area. We also had the Total Station at KKN today which dramatically sped up the mapping of finds process.

Over in T208 at the Thing is more charcoal. It seems that the pit was reused several times as there seems to be several separate layers of charcoal. This could possibly indicate that this particular pit was reused for cooking over the passage of time, a cooking pit palimpsest. We will have to see how far it goes down and carbon 14 date all the levels to see how early it started being used. And now for an update on the Thing's slag piece....(drum roll please)....not slag, turns out it was a particularly compressed and frozen piece of charcoal. it took some serious scientific analysis (using a microscope!) to figure this out.

Moving on to T308 at the Pits. Twas a half day there today as Sam had to do a presentation in the afternoon. A double stratigraphy was found in the trench though which is very cool. This means that the particular pit being excavated is the result of at least two separate occupations. This means that trench T308 at the Pits will be staying open for a few more days (instead of being closed up on Friday as previously thought) to see how far down these multiple occupations go.

More news from the survey team; they found another site. This one is 8 dwelling depressions that run along the 55 meter shore line, which dates to about 5000 years BP. Pretty cool. And apparently that's not the only thing they found, whilst trekking through a muddy field they learned that mud + rubber boots = stuck. Some foot excavations had to happen to remove some students who were stuck in the mud.

Picture time!

Making a wall of shade over trench T108 for picture taking purposes...also warmth.

Trench T108 at the end of the day.

Mapping finds with the Total Station at KKN.

Carrying the Total Station equipment back to the vans at the end of the day.

Tomorrow is Friday. This was just a statement. It doesn't really mean anything. Until next post!